Last week Kris and I spent 4 days riding in Baja. I had two items on the agenda:
- Ride hwy 5 South of San Felipe. The pavement job is still unfinished, so this is a long coastal road to nowhere, and should be nice with minimal traffic. It was!
- End up in Guerrero Negro to see the Grey Whales. They're wintering in the lagoon there, and should be plentiful and visit-able. They were!
We didn't have a ton of time, so we avoided riding the less-exciting sections by taking Mexican buses from TJ to San Felipe. These are relatively cheap, nice, frequent, and don't require you to box your bike. We saw a Mexican version of the Emperor Penguin documentary. Except here the scientists mess with the penguins by capturing them with long hooked sticks, and making them hang out in the tent. At least that's what I think was going on; there was a language barrier. There was snow on the pass between TJ and Mexicali.
The bus passes this. It's largely intact, sitting by the side of the road.
Alright. We got to San Felipe, got tacos at the Malecón to officially begin the trip, and rode South. It was getting late, and after only about 5 miles we set up camp in the coastal sand dunes behind a very impressive facade to some long-planned-yet-unbuilt development:
One could do worse
The beach was full of carnage, and I acquired some heavy souveniers that I then carried with me for 250 miles. Next morning, we continued riding South. It was quite nice. Hurricane Rosa came through a few months ago, and took out a number of bridges between San Felipe and Bahía Gonzaga. The affected bridges have dirt bypasses
And the road between Puertecitos and ~ 10 miles North is actively being rebuilt, so that whole stretch is a rough dirt bypass. Puertecitos was kinda dead as a result. Barely anybody around, with no working restaurants. There was a general store that was working. They were trying hard to keep their roof from blowing away
At Puertecitos the pavement comes back. We resupplied, rode a bit more, and set up camp on the coastal lava field of Prieto Volcano.
Camp. Climbed the bluff in the morning
And kept riding.
All paved with some dirt bridge bypasses. Eventually we got to Gonzaga bay. It's pretty nice, but we've been riding past pretty bays for two days now, so it didn't seem like anything special. Alfonsina's tacos were kinda expensive but tasty. They've remodeled to make the place look fancy, and it looks really out of place now. Onwards. At this point the road is still paved, and slowly climbs inland. After ~ 10 miles, an ominous sign comes into view
and the pavement soon ends. The rest of hwy 5 remains unpaved until the hwy 1 junction about 20 miles ahead. There're two unpaved parallel roads here: the actual road, and the construction bypass. No actual construction is currently occurring however, so the two options seem comparable. The surroundings started to look like the central desert of Baja, and it was time to camp.
Beautiful sunset, camp, look at the countless stars above, sunrise, etc, etc. We broke camp, and continued South, and upwards. A few miles before Coco's we hit a junction. The road to Coco's Corner (the "normal" hwy 5 route) went left, and another unpaved road went straight. Supposedly the alignment will be rerouted to bypass Coco's Corner eventually. We went left. Coco is a character. One time a big American military airplane was flying over Baja, saw the sun reflecting off Coco's roof and had to turn back. Coco then painted his roof white so that this wouldn't happen again. At least that's what I think was going on; there was a language barrier. After more climbing on dirt we topped out on a plateau at ~ 2200ft. The pavement comes back, and the last few miles to the hwy 1 junction are paved again. From the other side:
No stores anywhere within many miles of here, but there was a restaurant about 1km south of the junction. We got food, stocked up on water, and kept riding. Hwy 1 is paved, and carries more traffic than hwy 5, but it's still fairly sparse. More cool desert views and camping. Found these guys off the side of the road
and this guy
Eventually we got to Guerrero Negro. Its public park is cool
The next day we passed by a mountain of salt
and watched a guy roll his truck twice only to walk away shaken, but unscathed
Then we got on a boat
and went to check out these guys.
They're everywhere. Yeah, don't go to Baja. It's awful. Lots and lots more photos here for those interested
